Space News 26 January 2022 I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact the Webb space telescope has made it to its destination. This is the most incredible device ever launched into space. Some might want to say the space station is more incredible, but as far as a device being built and sent into orbit the Webb will probably teach us more about our place in space than the space station ever could. There has been a big disappointment for scientists. Scientists thought the south pole of Mars was covered with ice and there could be water under that ice. A new study which came out yesterday, January 24, 2022 states it is not ice they are looking at but it is volcanic material which happens to be very reflective. To add to the disappointment the report claimed this type of material is in many other places on Mars. This is very bad news for colonization. We had hoped the water was real because it could not only be used to drink, but to make fuel. If there is no water on Mars, we might have to either transport it there or try and figure out a way to make it before we can even think about colonization. When NASA finally launches the Artemis rocket there is going to be a probe launched. It is not very large, but will be using a technology which could bring it ultimately to a speed of 10 percent of that of light speed or 67,100,000 mph. This is important because the mission of the probe is to catch up to a near earth object which is an asteroid and photograph it. It will take measurements of the asteroid and other properties. One of the thing the scientists want to know is if the asteroid is solid or composed of smaller rocks and such. Another mission is being proposed by scientists. It has to do with an object which passed by us that startled some of them who issued an opinion which stated they thought it was some sort of alien probe. That object is now heading away from us and is traveling over 200,000 mph. The only option it seems to me is a solar sail, but this will lose its power past Jupiter since the suns rays get weaker the further away you are. They will have to make a quick decision because we have nothing else at the moment which can reach the speed of the object known as Oumuamua. Mimas is one of Saturn’s moons. It has been named Saturn’s Death Star because of the resemblance to the Death Star. A geophysicist has said he believes there are a group of small ocean worlds we wouldn’t suspect of having water and Mimas seems to fit into this description. There is still a long way to go to verify if it is a water world or not. There are said to be conditions on the moon which are consistent to the theory. A NASA Mars rover has discovered something which could be the signature proving life exists or existed on Mars. The Curiosity rover was collecting soil samples which contained carbon. Scientists got very excited over this discovery since carbon could mean there was life on Mars in the past. Does this mean life doesn’t exist there presently? Probably, but we can’t be sure until the entire planet is explored and we check some underground areas. The samples have been compared to soil samples taken in Australia which were over 2 billion years old. Antimatter is a material which will obliterate normal matter in a huge explosion if it comes into contact. It is lucky for us the matter around us has no antimatter. Recently scientists have proposed there could be some stars made entirely of antimatter. This antimatter is thought to be left over from the Big Bang which scientists believe created the universe. Scientists are still trying to figure out the puzzle if when the universe was created black holes formed first or not. I don’t know how they could ever know the answer but some scientists believe the James Webb will be able to tell us. I am not so sure about that. If we can look back into time, which is what a telescope does, and see an area so far out there where there are no more stars, how would we know if black holes existed in it since they would have been created before any other material so how could an event horizon tip us off if there could be none due to this lack of material? Who could have guessed living in space would be dangerous to astronauts and cosmonauts? We did know living without gravity atrophies the muscles and vigorous exercise is required to counter part of this, we didn’t know about the effects on red blood cells from living outside the shield around the earth. A test was taken on astronauts who spent 6 months or more in space and it was found they lost 54 percent of their red blood cells. Space is a dangerous place and some of the problems are, vestibular dysfunction, weight loss, upward fluid shift, anemia, cardiovascular deconditioning, muscle atrophy, bone loss, and even brain damage, along with other problems. All these problems will have to be solved for long space flights and before living on other worlds. Scientists have discovered there is a 1,000 light year wide bubble surrounding the earth. This bubble is also the source of thousands of young stars. According to a paper published by astronomers the bubble dates back 14 million years. All the young stars sit on the surface of giant bubbles known as the Local Bubbles. The giant bubble was said to have been created by a series of supernovae explosions. The material put out was perfect for star creation. A strange exoplanet has been discovered. It is the size of Jupiter, but much hotter and has the shape of a football. The amazing fact is the planet which is far away can be analyzed so precisely. The shock is it is not round. It has been given the designation WASP-103b. Scientists claim the deformation of the planet can tell them the makeup of the material it is made of. TESS is the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. The satellite has found a mysterious dusty object orbiting a star and they don’t know much about it. What they believe is the object emits clouds of dust as it orbits its star. It has been named TIC 400799224. It is thought it could be a disintegrating object.
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